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This photo is by Boboy.

Our friend Chuck Nitorreda died this morning. He was a lovely human being. We will never forget him.

We read and watch a lot of epics, and they all go on about how glorious it is for a warrior to die in battle. Well it’s the 21st century and the likelihood of a glorious warrior’s death in battle is almost nil. The nature of combat has changed.

The wars we wage today are smaller and quieter, but they are no less vicious and punishing. The struggle to be true to yourself, to uphold the things you believe in, to do right even (and especially) when it’s inconvenient and no one will praise you for it. To reject mediocrity and mindless conformity. To look after the people you love without being blind to their faults. To accept yourself and enjoy your own company. To do your work to the best of your ability, even if it doesn’t make you rich and no one will hear about it. These battles are internal and not very cinematic; the rest of the world doesn’t have to hear about them.

These are the battles we fight today, and Chuck has won them.

Every day for the last two months we have been jolted out of sleep by election campaign jingles blaring from vans going around the neighborhood. Most of them manage to be both loud and indiscernible: your eardrums get pulped, but you don’t know by whom—you can’t understand the lyrics. We’re not sure whom to put a curse on, but we do know that the lawyers for Carly Rae Jepsen and Maroon 5, among others, need to file suit for copyright infringement pronto. We seriously doubt that they’ve given permission for their tunes to get murdered.

Good news for our ears, for a change: the Tokyo-Manila Jazz & Arts Festival will be held on May 9 – 11 at Solaire Resort and Casino along Manila Bay in Parañaque.

Featured performers include Makoto Ozone, Yuki Arimasa, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, Kengo Nakamura, Charito, AMP Big Band, Colby de la Calzada and the Philippine Youth Symphonic Orchestra.

Yes, Charito! The Filipino jazz singer based in Tokyo.

Concert Day 1 is at 6pm in Eclipse at Solaire; Day 2 is at 7pm in the Grand Ballroom. Workshops will be held on May 11 starting at 2pm.

Ticket prices: Php8,240 for VIP table seats; Php5,150 for gold table seats; and Php3,090/2,060/1,030 for theatre seats. For ticket reservations call (02)7061580 or Ticketworld, (02)8919999, ticketworld.com.ph.

This Saturday you can get not one but three comic books free just by showing up at the Free Comic Book Day event at National Book Store on Quezon Avenue corner Panay Avenue, QC. No purchase necessary. Put it on your calendar, quick!

Apart from the comic book giveaway there will be book signings, toys and collectibles displays, and a showcase of independent titles by local talents. There will be discounts of up to 70 percent on imported graphic novels. Every purchase of a graphic novel entitles the buyer to a raffle ticket and a chance to win a one-of-a-kind iPad jampad with illustrations by the FCBD artists.

Entrance is free of charge.

From our friend Tina:

There will be a Glimpse into Zen seminar from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 21, at the Full Circle zen meditation center in the Good Shepherd Convent compound in Quezon City, near the corner of Aurora Boulevard and Katipunan Avenue.

The green entrance gate of the Good Shepherd compound at 1043 Aurora Boulevard is between the LRT-Katipunan underground station and the multi-story Aurora Milestone. Glimpse Into Zen will be held on the second floor of the building just inside the Good Shepherd gate. There is a secure parking lot located further within the grounds.

For more information or to register for the seminar, leave your name and number in Comments (it won’t be published) and we’ll forward the information to the organizers.

Monster Cookies! Chewy, bursting with chocolate chunks, just the right amount of sweet. Available in three variants: original Monster Cookies, White Monster Cookies and the New Black and White Cookies. Get them at Parvati on the ground floor of Trinoma mall in QC. For large orders, contact our webhost Melo at +63 928 405 0898 or melovillareal@gmail.com.

We can’t claim this one as a Pinoy. Not Zachary Quinto, Mr. Spock.

According to a Gallup survey, Singaporeans are “the least likely in the world to report experiencing emotions of any kind on a daily basis. The 36% who report feeling either positive or negative emotions is the lowest in the world. Filipinos, on the other hand, are the most emotional, with six in 10 saying they experience a lot of these feelings daily.”

Survey says…Filipinos are the most emotional people on earth. We’re inclined to agree, but those are their metrics? Who’s their control group, Vulcans?

Are there so many telenovelas because Filipinos are melodramatic, or are Filipinos melodramatic because there are so many telenovelas? The substitute national anthem could be “Feelings” (woe woe woe feeeelings) as sung by a former first lady.

Thanks to sunflowii for the alert!

For alerts, tipoffs and invitations, email saffron.safin@gmail.com. Yes, we accept invitations for talks and workshops, but only on subjects we actually know something about. We can’t discuss trends in social media because we’re not in the social media—this blog’s facebook page is maintained by our brilliant publicist friend. We can’t discuss lambing; do check out stuff we’ve written to see what we’re qualified to talk about, i.e. reading, writing, movies especially terrible ones, cats, loafing, and nerdiness. There is a fee, which varies; if you’re a school we’ll waive it, if you charge participants admission we charge too, and if you’re a corporation, pay up.